Is Bill Barrett Corp's Major Lobbying Spree Aimed at Ken Salazar?

In the fall of 2008, the outgoing Bush administration gave the oil and gas industry a parting gift that now threatens to destroy the Roan Plateau in Colorado, an area known for its stunning vistas, “beloved by hunters, anglers and hikers for its clear streams, herds of deer and elk, and rugged beauty.”

Barrett has been chomping at the bit ever since to begin drilling on the Roan, and claimed in a recent conference call with shareholders and media that legal and other challenges that have held up the development so far appeared close to being resolved. What the company’s executives didn’t talk about on the call was the fact that Barrett Corp. had massively expanded its lobbying budget ever since the sale, retaining two of Washington’s most notorious lobby shops.

For such a small company, $320,000 in lobbying expenditures is quite a lot of scratch to be throwing at D.C. lobbyists, especially when Barrett Corp. says it has worked closely with the local communities affected by its operations in order to settle disputes and earn local trust. So what could they possibly need to convince bureaucrats and lawmakers in Washington to help them with after getting such a sweet deal on the Roan leases?

Before the BLM auction even took place, the Bush administration’s plan to lease the Roan Plateau raised the ire of local communities in Colorado. It became the target of a major lawsuit by environmental and wilderness groups, the outcome of which is still pending. Barrett Corp. knew about the legal challenge before it purchased the drilling rights from Vantage Energy, but Barrett announced at the time that it would “vigorously pursue a settlement.”

That hasn’t happened as quickly as Barrett Corp. might have preferred. Public opposition to the plan to drill the Roan Plateau was overwhelmingly clear from the outset, even before the leases were sold by the Bush administration. When the BLM sought local input on the plan for more drilling on the Roan, the public comments opposed it by a factor of nearly 10 to 1.

it wasn’t just hemp-and Chaco-sandaled liberals up in Boulder who were crying into their chai lattes. Local communities from Carbondale to Silt, including Rifle, the onetime ranching and mining town at the base of the Roan, passed resolutions opposing the leasing. Joining the usual cast of greenies in opposition were hunters and fishermen like my guides: Neubecker is president of Colorado Trout Unlimited, while Torbit, of National Wildlife, is an avid hunter. “I never thought I’d be sitting down at the table with environmentalists,” says Keith Goddard, a local outfitter and rancher who is a longtime opponent of drilling the Roan. “But all it’s gonna take is one screwup, and that’ll be it,” he says, for the wildlife on the Plateau.

The Bush administration ignored their objections, as well as those of the governor of Colorado, two local congressmen, and U.S. Senator Ken Salazar, all of who opposed the drilling plan.

Note that Ken Salazar was among that list of officials who originally opposed the leasing of the Roan Plateau. As a Colorado Senator, Salazar praised “the environmental values of the plateau” and many environmental groups expected him to quickly reverse the last-minute Bush giveaway of the Roan Plateau when he became Secretary of the Interior under President Obama. In fact, Salazar sent an encouraging sign soon after taking office by killing a similarly controversial lease sale in Utah that would have allowed drilling next to Arches National Park. Many expected that Salazar would do the same for the Roan.